Arrest follows violence threat

MARQUETTE – An Ishpeming man was arrested Sunday evening, three days after he called police and said he was intending to “commit suicide by cop,” according to the Ishpeming City Police Department.

The 31-year-old man was on foot Sunday when he was arrested on Ishpeming’s North Street, police Chief Dan Willey said.

Willey said a November investigation into a methamphetamine lab in the city had led to warrants being issued for the man’s arrest.

“We were looking for him and he had an idea we were looking for him,” Willey said, adding he took a Friday morning phone call from the suspect. “He called me and told me he was going to commit suicide by cop and hurt people who had hurt him.”

Ishpeming police – with the assistance of the Michigan State Police, the Marquette County Sheriff’s Office and the U.P. Substance Enforcement Team – spent the weekend looking for the man, who Willey said was released from prison in May after serving about a decade for a violent offense.

Willey said police talked with the man again on Sunday and he agreed to give himself up to officers. At the time he was apprehended, the suspect was unarmed. No one was harmed in connection with the investigation or arrest.

He was arrested on one count of operating/maintaining a lab with meth components and one count of conspiracy to operate/maintain a lab with meth components.

Though police were concerned at the statements made by the subject, Willey said he was glad everything turned out well and gave credit to the assisting agencies.

The man is lodged in the Marquette County Jail and his name is being withheld pending arraignment.